Later on we got lucky and found some beautiful redfish in shallow water just outside Pensacola Pass. There was a strong incoming current, and we anchored short of the fish and drifted the fly to them. We tried numerous flies and finally got one to eat a chartreuse/white "half and half". Three more fish took that same fly over the next hour, and Greg landed two of them. This first fish weighed 25#.

Two days later fellow guide Mel Rojko, Breckenridge, Colorado, was on the boat on her birthday. Armed with the knowledge from the previous trips we were confident Mel might just land her first bull redfish. But of course the fish were much harder to find than expected. We headed east and finally found a relatively small school of maybe 30 redfish close to Battery Langdon. They were moving eastbound, so we got ahead of them and set up. But when they got close enough to sense the boat they changed direction and headed back to the west. We fired up the motor, circled around the school, anchored on the bar, and waited for them to get into range. But once again when they were just outside of casting range the school bolted. After trying the same technique two or three more times the fish came into range, and Mel made a nice cast hooking up immediately. Man, what a relief! She was thrilled, and the reel was singing. All was good until the line went limp... Sadly she reeled in only to find that the blood knot had failed at the 20# to 15# connection.